224 NATURAL HISTORY of NO RTFAT: 



cording to Seel. n. p. 29. is faid to fignify a fugitive, or an un~ 

 fettled people. However, that ingenious author is not of my 

 opinion, by his feeking for their ancient habitation in Biarrneland, 

 - or the Ruffian province of Samojeden, fuppofing that they retired 

 towards the Bothnic bay ifj But the found of a Name, in my 

 opinion is not fufficient to eftablifh the truth of hiftory. Which 

 of thefe conjectures is befl founded, appears from the Iceland, and 

 other monuments collected by the learned Thormodus Torfasus, 

 who has cleared up this point, by fhewing, that tho' the Afers 

 partly expelled, and partly united to them the Idigense, or ancient 

 inhabitants of the North, who were comprehended under the ex- 

 tenfive names of Celtae, Cimbri, and Goths. Thefe received the 

 language and manners of the Afers,, and began to cultivate the 

 lands, and to forfake their anceftors more flmple way of living. 

 In the mean time, they were not all willing to fubmit to this 

 great reformation and the many new cuftoms introduced, which 

 the vulgar generally rejedfc without examination in all ages. 

 The ancient There was no other means left for fuch than to look out for 

 Slid Kei! habitations farther to the north, towards Finmarken, whither the 

 trings ' Finlanders had retired before. Thofe that remained behind, and 

 obftinately perfifted in the old cuftoms, and wore the ancient 

 drefs, were looked upon as aliens, and called Keltrings, i. e. the 

 defendants of the Celters, or Celtas. This is the derivation of 

 that defpicable name given us in the Nova Litterarid Maris Baltici 

 et Septentr. ad Ann. MDCXCIX. mens. Jun. in a letter from that 

 great antiquarian Ottho Sperlingius, a Norvegian by birth, to the 

 Lubeck collectors of the faid journal, a few words from which I 

 fhall introduce on the credit of the faid author. 



" Afa quippe in feptentrionem venientes miferam hanc vitam 

 cenfebant, quam Celtae priores incolas ducebant veteris fimplicitatis 



* John Schefferus in his Lapponia, Chap. vi. p. 46. is very uncertain of the 

 origin of the Fin, and Laplanders, and is of opinion, that they cannot be derived 

 from the Ruffians, Swedes, or Norvegians ; becaufe the ftature of their body is leis, 

 neither are they fo corpulent, and their complexion, and hair dark brown, which is 

 the reverfe of the other northern people. But this argument feems to me of no great 

 weight, becaufe as the children of Adam, we derive our origin from one country. 

 But°by length of time, and difference of climates, are become very unlike one ano- 

 ther both in fize and complexion, for the extreme cold in which the Fin-Laplanders 

 live,' in the frigid zone, does not only obftrucl their growth, but likewife makes 

 ■ their complexion dark as well as hot climates, which M. Buflbn demonftrates in his 

 natural hiftory, T. in. p. 527. and again in fed. 3. 



2 memores 



